William Egan & Ḵaalḵáawu Cyril George

This special collection, established in 2016, is named after Ḵaalḵáawu Cyril George, a Tlingit leader from the Deisheetaan Clan of Angoon, and partially funded by a Rasmuson Foundation grant. The Cyril George Collection honors Indigenous voices and Alaska Native Knowledge in a collection of over 4,000 volumes on the main floor of Egan Library.

The collection included sub-collections for Alaska Native Arts, Alaska Native Language, and Alaska Native Society. A Global Indigenous Knowledge collection had materials with more of a focus on Indigenous people of North America and the world, as well as more general language materials, and literature. All of the Indigenous literature could be found in the Global collection, including by Alaskans, so that they can all be located together for a broader collection representing Indigenous voices. There were also two material-based sub-collections, for Media and Oversize materials. The collection has since undergone a project to reorganize and reclassify the materials, as part of the ongoing work to improve access to the materials and enhance this special collection.

For more on Cyril George, see this piece from Alaska Public Media.

Image credit: Cyril George at Sealaska Heritage recording stories in 2013 photo by Christy Eriksen, courtesy of Sealaska Heritage Institute.